Shakespeare's life
This article gives more detailed information on the life of English poet and playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616). Preface: Shakespeare biography Most biographical information about William Shakespeare's life and death (1564-1616) derives from public instead of private documents: vital records, real estate and tax records, lawsuits, records of payments, and references to Shakespeare and his works in printed and hand-written texts.Loomis, Catherine, ed. (2002). Introduction, William Shakespeare: A Documentary Volume. Dictionary of Literary Biography 263. Detroit: Gale Group, ISBN 978-0-7876-6007-9, p.xxix.Holderness, Graham (2011). Nine Lives of William Shakespeare. London, New York: Continuum, ISBN 978-1-4411-5185-8, p. 2. Because of his social status as a commoner, the low esteem in which his profession was held, and the general disinterest of the time in the biographies of writers, few personal biographical facts about Shakespeare survive.Southworth, John (2000). Shakespeare the Player: A Life in the Theatre. Stroud: Sutton, ISBN 0-7509-2312-1, p. 5. Nevertheless, as might have been expected, there is a copious literature devoted to Shakespeare and his works. Literally thousands of biographies have been and continue to be written in the absence of any personal papers, based on the 70 or so hard facts recorded about Shakespeare the man, most of which embellish or interpret the facts.Holderness 2011, 19 Biographies that may be mentioned include Halliwell Phillipps's Outline of the Life of Shakespeare (7th ed., 1887), Fleay's Shakespeare Manual (1876), and Life of Shakespeare (1886). Life by Sidney Lee (1898), Dowden's Shakespeare: His mind and art (1875), Drake's Shakespeare and his Times (1817), Thornberry's Shakespeare's England (1856), and Knight's Shakespeare (1843). Overview The bare historical record documents that Shakespeare was baptized 26 April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, England, in the Holy Trinity Church, at age 18 married Anne Hathaway with whom he had 3 children, was an actor, playwright and theatre entrepreneur in London, owned property in both Stratford and London, and died 23 April 1616 at the age of 52. Youth Family on April 256, 1564 in the Holy Trinity Church reads, in Latin: "Gulielmus filius Johannes Shakspere" (William son of John Shakespeare).]] On his father's side Shakespeare belonged to a good yeoman stock, though his descent cannot be certainly traced beyond his grandfather, a Richard Shakespeare, settled at Snitterfield, near Stratford. His father, John Shskespeare, appears to have been a man of intelligence and energy, who set up in Stratford-on-Avon, Warwiskshire, as a dealer in all kinds of agricultural produce, to which he added the trade of a glover. He became prosperous, and gained the respect of his neighbors, as is evidenced by his election in succession to all the municipal honors of his community, including those of chief alderman and high bailiff.Cousin, 335. He married Mary, youngest daughter of Robert Arden, a wealthy farmer at Wilmcote, and a younger branch of a family of considerable distinction, and whose tenant Richard Shakespeare had been. On her father's death Mary inherited Asbies, a house with 50 acres of land attached to it. The 1st children of the marriage were 2 daughters, who died in infancy. William was the 3rd, and others followed, of whom 3 sons and a daughter reached maturity: Gilbert (baptized 13 October 1566 - buried 2 February 1612), Joan (baptized 15 April 1569 - buried 4 November 1646), Richard (baptized 11 March 1574 - buried 4 February 1613) and Edmund (baptized 3 May 1580 - buried London, 31 December 1607).Chambers, E. K. (1930). William Shakespeare: A Study of Facts and Problems. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-811774-2. II:1-2. Education William Shakespeare was born at Stratford-on-Avon on April 22 or 23, and baptised on April 26, 1564. Although no attendance records for the period survive, Shakespeare was probably educated at the King's New School in Stratford, . a free school chartered in 1553,Baldwin, T.W. (1944), William Shakspere's Small Latine & Lesse Greek., (2 volumes), Urbana, Ill: University of Illinois Press, 1944, II: 464}}. about a quarter-mile from his home. Edward VI, the king honoured in the school's name, had in the mid-16th century diverted money from the dissolution of the monasteries to endow a network of grammar schools to "propagate good literature ... throughout the kingdom", but the school had originally been set up by the Guild of the Holy Cross, a church institution in the town, early in the 15th century. It was further endowed by a Catholic chaplain in 1482. It was free to male children in Stratford.Honan, Park. Shakespeare: A Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999, 43. He probably read some of the Latin classics and may have got a little Greek, and though his learned friend Ben Jonson credits him with "little Latin and less Greek," Aubrey says he "knew Latin pretty well." This happy state of matters continued until he was about 13, when his father fell into misfortune, which appears to have gone on deepening. Shakespeare's father, prosperous at the time of William's birth, was prosecuted for unlicensed dealing in wool,Michael Wood Shows these recently discovered documents along with others in the PBS show "In Search of Shakespeare" and on DVD with the same title B00019JRFY (2004) and later lost his position as an alderman. William was taken from school, and appears to have been made to assist his father in his business. Marriage The next certain fact in Shakespeare's history is his marriage in November, 1582, when he was 18, to Ann Hathaway, daughter of a yeoman at the neighboring hamlet of Shottery, and 8 years his senior. Various circumstances point to the marriage having been against the wishes of his own family, and pressed on by that of his wife, and that it was so urged in defense of the reputation of the lady, and as perhaps might be expected, they indicate, though not conclusively, that it did not prove altogether happy. The birth, in May, 1583, of his eldest child Susannah (who is said to have inherited something of his wit and practical ability, and who married a Dr. John Hall), followed in the next year by that of twins, Hamnet and Judith, and the necessity of increased means, led to his departure from Stratford. The tradition that his departure was also caused by trouble into which he had got by killing the deer of Sir Thomas Lucy, of Charlcote, is credible. Genealogy Lost years After the birth of the twins, save for being party to a law suit to recover part of his mother's estate which had been mortgaged and lost by default, Shakespeare left no historical traces until he is mentioned as part of the London theatrical scene. Indeed, the 7-year period between 1585 (when his twin children were born) and 1592 (when Robert Greene would call him an "upstart crow") is known as Shakespeare's "lost years" because no evidence has survived to show exactly where he was or why he left Stratford for London.E.A.J. Honigmann, Shakespeare: The lost years, Manchester University Press; 2nd edition, 1999, 1. Print. Several theories have been put forth to account for his life during this time, and a number of stories are given by his earliest biographers, including that Shakespeare fled Stratford after he got in trouble for poaching deer from local squire Thomas Lucy, or that he wrote a scurrilous ballad about him. Shakespeare's 1st biographer Nicholas Rowe recorded both these tales, stating that he wrote the ballad after being prosecuted for poaching by Lucy. John Aubrey says that he worked as a country school teacher, and Rowe that he minded the horses of theatre patrons in London. There is no documentary evidence to support any of these stories and they all were recorded only after Shakespeare's death."The Lost Years," Shakespeare Time line, accessed 8 November 2006. Schoolmaster tradition The tradition that Shakespeare had been a country schoolmaster was begun by John Aubrey, who reported it in his Brief Lives (1681) on the authority of William Beeston, son of Christopher Beeston, who had acted with Shakespeare in Every Man in His Humour (1598) as a fellow member of the Lord Chamberlain's Men.Schoenbaum, 1987, pp. 110–111. In 1985 E. A. J. Honigmann proposed that Shakespeare acted as a schoolmaster in Lancashire, on the evidence found in the 1581 will of a member of the Hoghton family, referring to plays and play-clothes and asking his kinsman Thomas Hesketh to take care of "...William Shakeshaft, now dwelling with me...". The supposed link was John Cottam, Shakespeare's reputed last schoolmaster, who was purported to have recommended the young man. "Shakeshaft" was, however, a common name in Lancashire at the time. A better documented, but still far from conclusive, link was established some 20 years later in Shakespeare's life: in the will of London goldsmith Thomas Savage, Shakespeare's trustee at the Globe Theatre, one of the beneficiaries was Hesketh's widow. , quoted in Michael Wood "In Search of Shakespeare" (2003) BBC Books, ISBN 0-563-52141-4 p.80 Scope for further speculation is offered by records showing that Lord Strange's Men, a company of players linked with Shakespeare's early career in London, regularly performed in the area and would be well known to the Hoghtons and the Heskeths. , quoted in Schoenbaum (1991: 535–6) This would provide a neat explanation of Shakespeare's arrival on the London theatre scene when the troupe returned to the city, but no evidence to support this notion has been found.Schoenbaum (1991: 535–6) Rowe's account On Rowe's account, after leaving Stratford in 1585 or the beginning of 1586, Shakespeare traveled on foot to London, where the next 23 years of his life were mainly spent. He seems at once to have turned to the theatres, where he soon found work, although, as Rowe (Shakespeare's 1st biographer), says, "in a very mean rank." It was not long, however, before he had opportunities of showing his capacities as an actor, with the result that he shortly became a member of 1 of the chief acting companies of the day (which was then under the patronage of the Earl of Leicester. It played originally in "The Theatre" in Shoreditch, the 1st playhouse to be erected in England, and afterwards in the "Rose" on the Bankside, Southwark, the scene of the earliest successes of Shakespeare as an actor and playwright.Cousin, 336. Playwright Immense research has been spent upon the writings of Shakespeare, with the result of substantial agreement as to the order of their production and the sources from which their subjects were drawn; for Shakespeare rarely troubled himself with the construction of a plot. Shakespeare's period of literary production extends from about 1588 to 1613, and falls naturally into 4 divisions, which Prof. Dowden has named, "In the Workshop" ending in 1596; "In the World" 1596-1601; "Out of the Depths" 1601-1608; and "On the Heights" 1608-1613. Of the 37 plays usually attributed to him, 16 only were published during his lifetime, so that the exact order in which they were produced cannot always be determined with certainty. Recent authorities are agreed to the extent that while they do not invariably place the individual plays in the same order, they are almost entirely at 1 as to which belong to the 4 periods respectively. The following list shows in a condensed form the order according to the Dictionary of National Biography with the most probable dates and the original sources on which the plays are founded. The evidence as to chronology is 3-fold: — (1) External, such as entries in registers of Stationers' Company, contemporary references, or details as to the companies of actors; (2) External and internal combined, such as references in the plays to events or books, etc.; (3) Internal, content and treatment, progressive changes in versification, presence of frequency of rhyme, etc.Cousin, 338. In the Workshop, ?1588-1596 Most scholars believe that by 1592 Shakespeare was a playwright in London, and that he had enough of a reputation for Robert Greene to denounce him as "an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tygers hart wrapt in a Players hyde, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blanke verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Johannes factotum, is in his owne conceit the onely Shake-scene in a countrey." (The italicized line parodies the phrase, "Oh, tiger's heart wrapped in a woman's hide" which Shakespeare wrote in Henry VI, part 3.) By late 1594, Shakespeare was part-owner of a playing company, known as the Lord Chamberlain's Men. — like others of the period, the company took its name from its aristocratic sponsor, in this case the Lord Chamberlain. The group became popular enough that,Shakespeare's life, Wikipedia. Web, 2011. after being associated with the names of various other noblemen, at last on the accession of James I became known as the King's Company. ;Writing *Sonnets, 1591-1594? *''Love's Labour's Lost'', 1591 - no known source *''Two Gentlemen of Verona'', 1591 - "The Shepherdess Felismena" in George of Montmayor's Diana. *''The Comedy of Errors'', 1591 - Menæchmi of Plautus and earlier play. *''Romeo and Juliet'', 1591 - Italian romance in Painter's Palace of Pleasure and Brooke's Romeus and Juliet. *''Henry VI, Parts 1, 2, and 3'', 1592 — Retouched old plays, probably with Marlowe. *''Richard III'', 1592-1593 — Holinshed's Chronicle. *"Venus and Adonis," 1593 *''Richard II'', 1593-1594? - Holinshed. *''Titus Andronicus'', 1594 - Probably chiefly by Kyd, retouched. *''King John'', 1594 - Old play retouched. *"The Rape of Lucrece," 1594. In the World, 1596-1601 By 1595 Shakespeare was famous and prosperous; his earlier plays had been written and acted, and his poems Venus and Adonis, and Lucrece, and probably most of the sonnets, had been published and received with extraordinary favor. He had also powerful friends and patrons, including the Earl of Southampton, and was known at Court. The Shakespeare family had long sought armorial bearings and the status of gentleman. William's father John, a bailiff of Stratford with a wife of good birth, was eligible for a coat of arms and applied to the College of Heralds, but evidently his worsening financial status prevented him from obtaining it. The application was successfully renewed in 1596, most probably at the instigation of William himself as he was the more prosperous at the time. The motto "Non sanz droict" ("Not without right") was attached to the application, but it was not used on any armorial displays that have survived. The theme of social status and restoration runs deep through the plots of many of his plays, and at times Shakespeare seems to mock his own longing.Greenblatt (2004: "The Dream of Restoration", 76–86) , Shakespeare's home, sketched by George Vertue in 1737.]] By 1596, Shakespeare had moved to the parish of St. Helen's, Bishopsgate, and by 1598 he appeared at the top of a list of actors in Every Man in His Humour written by Ben Jonson. He is also listed among the actors in Jonson's Sejanus: His Fall. Also by 1598, his name began to appear on the title pages of his plays, presumably as a selling point. There is a tradition that Shakespeare, in addition to writing many of the plays his company enacted and concerned with business and financial details as part-owner of the company, continued to act in various parts, such as the ghost of Hamlet's father, Adam in As You Like It, and the Chorus in Henry V.Article on Shakespeare's Globe Theatre Zee News on Shakespeare, accessed 23 January 2007. It is not unlikely that he visited various provincial towns; but that he was ever in Scotland or on the Continent is improbable ;Writing *''The Merchant of Venice'', 1594 — Italian novels, Gesta Romanorum, and earlier plays. *''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', 1595 - North's Plutarch, Chaucer, Ovid. *''All's Well that Ends Well'', 1595 - Painter's Palace of Pleasure. *''The Taming of the Shrew'', 1596? - Old play retouched, and Supposes of George Gascoigne, Shakespeare's in part only. *''Henry IV, Part 1 & 2'' — Holinshed and earlier play. *''The Merry Wives of Windsor'', 1597-1598 - Italian novels (?). *''Henry V'', 1599 - Holinshed? *''Much Ado about Nothing'', 1599 - Partly from Italian. *''As You Like It'', 1599 - Lodge's Rosalynde: Euphues' golden legacie. *''Twelfth Night; or, What You will'', 1599 - Riche's Apolonius and Silla. Out of the Depths, 1601-1608 By the end of the century, Shakespeare is mentioned by Francis Meres as the greatest man of letters of the day, and his name had become so valuable that it was affixed by unscrupulous publishers to works by other and often very inferior hands, such as Locrine, Oldcastle, and The Yorkshire Tragedy. He had also resumed a close connection with Stratford, and was making the restoration of the family position there the object of his ambition. In accordance with this he induced his father to apply for a grant of arms, which was given, and he purchased New Place, the largest house in the village. He appears to have moved across the River Thames to Southwark sometime around 1599. In 1604, Shakespeare acted as a matchmaker for his landlord's daughter. Legal documents from 1612, when the case was brought to trial, show that Shakespeare was a tenant of Christopher Mountjoy, a Huguenot tire-maker (a maker of ornamental headdresses) in the northwest of London in 1604. Mountjoy's apprentice Stephen Belott wanted to marry Mountjoy's daughter. Shakespeare was enlisted as a go-between, to help negotiate the details of the dowry. On Shakespeare's assurances, the couple married. 8 years later, Belott sued his father-in-law for delivering only part of the dowry. Shakespeare was called to testify, but remembered little of the circumstances. On this case see article 'Bellott v. Mountjoy'. Various documents recording legal affairs and commercial transactions show that Shakespeare grew rich enough during his stay in London years to buy a property in Blackfriars, London and own the 2nd-largest house in Stratford, New Place. With the income derived from his profession as an actor and dramatist, and his share of the profits of the Globe and Blackfriars theatres, and in view of the business capacity with which he managed his affairs, he may be regarded as almost a wealthy man, and he went on adding to his influence in Stratford by buying land. He had enjoyed the favor of Elizabeth, and her death in 1603 did nothing to disturb his fortunes, as he stood quite as well with her successor. His company received the title of the "King's Servants," and his plays were frequently performed before the Court. But notwithstanding this, the clouds had gathered over his life. The conspiracy of Essex in 1601 had involved several of his friends and patrons in disaster; he had himself been entangled in the unhappy love affair which is supposed to be referred to in some of his sonnets, and he had suffered unkindness at the hands of a friend. For a few years his dramas breathe the darkness and bitterness of a heart which has been sounding the depths of sad experience. ;Writing *''Julius Caesar'', 1601 - North's Plutarch. *''Hamlet'', 1601 - Belleforest's Histoires Tragiques. *''Troilus and Cressida'', 1603? - probably Chaucer's Troilus and Cresseide and Chapman's Homer. *''Othello'', 1604 - Cinthio's Hecatommithi. *''Measure for Measure'', 1604? - Cinthio's Epithia. *''Macbeth'', 1605-1606? - Holinshed. *''King Lear'', 1606 - Holinshed. *''Timon of Athehs, 1607? - Palace of Pleasure, and Plutarch; written with G. Wilkins (?) and W. Rowley (?). *''Pericles: Prince of Tyre'', 1607-1608'' - Gower's Confessio Amantis, with G. Wilkins (?). *''Antony and Cleopatra'', 1608 - North's Plutarch. *''Coriolanus'', 1608 - North's Plutarch. On the Heights, 1608-1613 Shakespeare soon, however, emerged from the darkness and bitterness and, passing through the period of the great tragedies, reached the serene triumph and peace of his later dramas. ;Writing *''Cymbeline'', 1610-1611? - Holinshed, and Ginevra in Boccaccio's Decameron. *''A Winter's Tale'', 1610-1611 - Robert Greene's Dorastus and Fawnia. *''The Tempest'', 1611? - S. Jourdain's Discovery of the Bermudas. *''Henry VIII'', 1612-1613 - draft by Shakespeare, completed by Fletcher and perhaps Massinger. Character The genius of Shakespeare was so intensely dramatic that it is impossible to say confidently when he speaks in his own character. The plays are written within the frame of reference of the career actor, rather than a member of the learned professions or from scholarly book-learning. The sonnets, written probably 1591-94, have however been thought to be of a more personal nature, and to contain indications as to his character and history; and much labor and ingenuity have been expended to make them yield their secrets. It is generally agreed that they fall into 2 sections, the 1st consisting of sonnets 1 to 126 addressed to a young man, probably Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, the friend and patron of Shakespeare, and 9 years his junior; and the 2nd from 127 to 154, addressed or referring to a woman in whose snares the writer had become entangled, and by whom he was betrayed. Some, however, have held that they are allegorical, or partly written on behalf of others, or that the emotion they express is dramatic and not personal. There are contemporary references to Shakespeare which show him to have been generally held in high regard. Ben Jonson says, "I loved the man, and do honour to his memory, on this side idolatry, as much as any," and Chettle refers to "His demeanour no lesse civil than exelent in the qualities he professes." The only exception is the reference to him in Robert Greene's Groat's-worth of Wit, as "an upstart crow beautified with our feathers, that with his tyger's heart wrapt in a player's hide supposes he is as well able to bumbast out a blanke verse as the best of you ... and is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a countrie."Cousin, 339. He is said to have written rapidly and with facility, rarely requiring to alter what he had set down. Final years ]] Rowe was the 1st biographer to pass down the tradition that Shakespeare retired to Stratford some years before his death;Ackroyd, 476. but retirement from all work was uncommon at that time,Honan, 382–383. and Shakespeare continued to visit London. In 1612 he was called as a witness in a court case concerning the marriage settlement of Mountjoy's daughter, Mary.Honan, 326.; Ackroyd, 462–464. In March 1613 he bought a gatehouse in the former Blackfriars priory;Schoenbaum, 1977, 272–274 and from November 1614 he was in London for several weeks with his son-in-law, John Hall.Honan, 387. Early in 1616 Shakespeare's health began to give way, and he made his will. On Rowe's account, in that spring he received a visit from his friends, Jonson and Drayton, and the festivity with which it was celebrated seems to have brought on a fever, of which he died. His death was on 23 April 1616, at the age of 52.His age and the date are inscribed in Latin on his funerary monument: AETATIS 53 DIE 23 APR He was survived by his wife and his 2 daughters, both of whom were married. His descendants died out with his grand-daughter, Elizabeth Hall.Cousin, 337. Shakespeare is buried in the chancel of Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon. He was granted the honour of burial in the chancel not on account of his fame as a playwright but for purchasing a share of the tithe of the church for £440 (a considerable sum of money at the time). A monument on the wall nearest his grave, probably placed by his family,Cultural Shakespeare: Essays in the Shakespeare Myth by Graham Holderness, Univ of Hertfordshire Press, 2001, pages 152-54. features a bust showing Shakespeare posed in the act of writing. Each year on his claimed birthday, a new quill pen is placed in the writing hand of the bust. He is believed to have written the epitaph on his tombstone. ::Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear, ::To dig the dust enclosed here. ::Blest be the man that spares these stones, ::And cursed be he that moves my bones. See also * Sexuality of William Shakespeare * Shakespeare's reputation * Shakespeare's Way * William Shakespeare's religion References *John William Cousin, "Shakespeare, William," A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: Dent / New York: Dutton, 1910, 335-339. Wikisource, Web, Feb. 27, 2018. Notes External links *William Shakespeare at Biography.com * The Shakespeare Birthplace trust has an excellent discussion of Shakespeare's life on its website. *[http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/27187 A Warwickshire Lad] by George Madden Martin * The Internet Shakespeare Editions provides an extensive section on his life and times. * The Stratford Guide A visitor Guide to Stratford Upon Avon. Has sections on Shakespeare's life, Attractions in Stratford and much more. * The Shakespeare Resource Center A directory of Web resources for online Shakespearean study. Includes a Shakespeare biography, works timeline, play synopses, and language resources. * Timeline of Shakespeare's life with links to pictures of documents along with historical events. This is part of the interactive PBS web site with other resources as background for the documentary [http://www.pbs.org/shakespeare/ In Search of Shakespeare] with Michael Wood from the BBC. * The Shakespeare Paper Trail with Documenting the Early Years and Documenting the Later Years are 2 sets of interactive articles written by Michael Wood to go with his BBC documentary [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/archive.shtml#in_search_of_shakespeare In Search of Shakespeare] * Shakespeare's family tree * The Literature Network discusses Shakespeare's biography, his plays, and the history of them. There are lists of all of his plays and the order in which they were written. * [http://search.eb.com/shakespeare/article-232338 Encyclopædia Britannica's Guide to Shakespeare] A comprehensive resource that includes historical information and background on Shakespeare's plays and in depth literary critiques. *''Some Account of the Life of Mr. William Shakespear'' by Nicholas Rowe (edited by Samuel Holt Mink). Ann Arbor, MI: Augustan Reprint Society, 1948. * This article uses public domain text from A Short Biographical Dictionary of the English Language, 1910. Original article is at "Shakespeare, William" * life, Shakespeare's